Chinese E-Commerce Giant Taobao Splits Itself Up

Taobao, the biggest commerce site in China, is splitting itself
up into three sites and entities,
AllThingsD reports.

Taobao is often referred to as the "eBay of China" but it's a
much broader e-commerce platform and the split reflects that. Now
there will be Taobao itself, a consumer-to-consumer marketplace
(i.e. like eBay), Taobao Mall, a business-to-consumer marketplace
(i.e. businesses open storefront on Taobao Mall to sell to
consumers) and eTao, a shopping search engine.

Despite the split, still no IPO of Taobao, on the horizon. Its
biggest shareholders include Yahoo, which is itching for Taobao
to go public so it can sell its multibillion dollar stake and put
it to better use.

Interestingly, Alibaba's colorful founder Jack Ma said that Yahoo
should
split itself up. So he's putting his money where his mouth
is.